Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk THE door industry journal summer 2022 Industry News 14 Speakers Corner Neil Discombe, Managing Director of Garador. Britain’s leading garage door manufacturer Garador has been in business for over 70 years, but recently there have been significant changes in the industry. Here Garador’s Managing Director Neil Discombe gives his views on the current market and how the company’s readiness to adapt to a changing world is key to longevity and continuing success. “Looking at the garage door market today, many of the issues being experienced right now are not confined to this sector or even to the building industry. Supply chain issues continue to be a major challenge in many areas; the automotive sector, for instance, has been particularly hard hit by silicon chip shortages. From our point of view, there are currently supply chain issues in steel for garage doors and components for our operators and we have now diversified our supply chains to help ensure reliable supplies while this uncertainty remains. Pricing, both in energy and steel, is also of concern; we anticipate further increases in steel prices in the second half of the year and at Garador we are taking what steps we can to help mitigate additional costs. However, there are also many positives in the market. The new-build housing market is currently a key area of growth and the replacement market is also strong. Overall, demand for garage doors is holding up and, despite the economic headwinds of inflation, increased energy prices, increased National Insurance and so on, the near-term outlook for the garage door industry remains fair. Garador has an advantage because it is a very well-established business with a strong heritage and a well-known and well-recognised brand throughout the building industry. Much of our strength comes from the quality of people within the organization and we have a diligent and dedicated team here in Yeovil, both on the commercial and the manufacturing side. This is supported by our comprehensive training programme for all our employees that helps us build a culture of continuous improvement. Our product range is well-rounded with one of the best offerings currently available in the UK market. Innovation has always been key, and we continue to innovate with new products such as the GaraGlide roller door and the new side-hinged door; both are growing market sectors at the moment. At the other end, we are removing less popular products such as Chevron and Linear Trio, from the range in order to focus on more popular styles. Investment and expansion have been key to success throughout Garador’s long history and this continues today. Our investment programme is ongoing, renewing plant and product machinery so we can mass produce quality garage doors to supply the market. By next year, we will have invested around £3m in manufacturing upgrades. We are also starting to see some of the recent projects we have been working on coming to bear fruit. This includes increased production capacity for wide-profile doors such as Windsor and Ascot as an example and a superior, more consistent painting system thanks to recent investment in new paint plant equipment. We have confidence in the future and are continuing with our plans to expand the factory in Yeovil to cover the increasing demand for garage doors in the UK domestic garage door market. We do recognise, however, that it is a period of great change, not only in the garage door market but in the world in general. Securing our energy supplies is vital, but caring for our environment is today also key to good business. Here at Garador we have for some time been looking at all environmental issues concerned with our industry, taking what steps we can to shift towards using cleaner energy to manufacture our products and what else we can do for our business as a whole. We have this year commissioned a full study to establish our baseline carbon footprint and we have also just implemented our new plan to remove plastic coverings from our products. Here at Garador, we will continue to evolve and change as a business, ensuring we are flexible and can adapt quickly to changing market trends. This has been a successful foundation for Garador in the past and we have confidence it will also see us into a long and successful future.”
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